Tag Archives | Cosmo Cricket

Every year I find myself trying to hold on to every last scrap of summer while at the same time easing into fall, and this month’s kit at Scrapbook Update, Autumn Sunlight, was inspired by the bright, fun, happy times that are experienced when trying to cram every conceivable warm-weather excursion into a single month before chilly temperatures prevail.

I chose sunny yellow and deep turquoise as base colors, then built on those with pops of coral using some of the latest papers from My Mind’s Eye, Echo Park, Crate Paper, and Cosmo Cricket for a kit that’s part summer and part fall, making it useful for so many different layout themes. Continue Reading →

Advantus Corp. announced yesterday that they have acquired Cosmo Cricket from owners Eric & Julie Comstock and Lindsay Moore.

Cosmo Cricket was founded by artists Eric & Julie Comstock in 2006. Moore joined the company a short time later, taking charge of its sales operations. The company is known for its bright, graphic designs with a retro influence, a departure from Advantus’s current design portfolio.

Among its diverse portfolio of brands, Jacksonville, Florida-based Advantus is the parent company of craft lines Tim Holtz idea-ology, Cropper Hopper, and Sulyn. Their Vituri tote brand is also familiar to many crafters by its former name of All My Memories. The company has embarked on many crafts ventures in recent years – it also briefly had the Margie Romney-Aslett signature line The Girls Paperie in 2010-2011, and was also the home of Heidi Swapp’s now-defunct signature line for several years. Advantus has only been involved in the craft industry since 2004, but the company has been in existence since 1913.

This addition will be a great compliment to our existing craft and hobby brands,” said Kevin Carpenter, President of Advantus Corp. “We have always admired Cosmo Cricket’s design and commitment to their customers and we look forward to developing new products with Julie and Eric.”

Julie Comstock said, “The three of us are super excited to partner with Advantus. We can’t wait to work with their talented staff so that we can focus on what we’re best at – creating more products for our customers to love.”

Cosmo Cricket’s operations will be moving from Utah to Advantus headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida in early September. The Comstocks and Lindsay Moore will remain with Cosmo Cricket as part of its Advantus operations.

All wholesale orders and inquiries for Cosmo Cricket can be directed to Advantus Customer Satisfaction by email to crafts@advantus.com or by calling (904) 482-0092.

Use coupon code “PINK CAMO” to get $2 off registration through September 5th!!!!

Scrappers who are fans of all things vintage and sophisticated are going to love this next set of booth photos featuring Jenni Bowlin, Teresa Collins, and Cosmo Cricket!

Jenni Bowlin’s signature vintage style was reflected in her booth decor – it was absolutely stuffed to the gills with her signature antiques!

The Red and Black collection has become a tradition for this company as they release an extension each year that incorporates new designs while at the same time staying true to (and coordinating with) the line’s original look and feel.

Isn’t the chunky font on these days of the week stamps wonderful?

These reproduction divided cigar boxes are a new item that Jenni Bowlin debuted at this show. There are so many possibilities here ranging from home decor to gift wrap…even storage (imagine that)!

Jenni’s Christmas line is full of traditional reds and greens with vintage holiday icons scattered throughout.

And the Jenni Bowlin Halloween line is also fabulous, with its vintage imagery and playful patterns.

Jenni Bowlin is also updating her signature product line with Ranger by adding three new colors to the ink pad and paint dabber line – Lavender Sachet, Weather Vane, and Speckled Egg – while retiring three others (Chicken Feed, Chili Powder, and Soap Powder).

These doily flowers really caught my eye as an example of some of the timeless and innovative embellishments that this company continually produces.

The ever-sophisticated Teresa Collins had three new collections at CHA Summer 2011. “World Traveler” is my favorite of the bunch – anything with a map print is sure to catch my eye, and it was a major trend at the show as well.

Teresa has some lovely brads and bling to match each of her lines at this show, as well.

And of course, Teresa Collins is known for her signature damask papers.

“Christmas Home” takes all the elements you’d expect from Teresa Collins – home decor icons such as chandeliers, rich damasks, and bits of bling – and combines them into a lush and lovely line.

Damasks are a huge trend for Halloween this year, and of course they are Teresa’s signature.

“Notations” was Teresa Collins’ mid-year release, bringing patters from her popular Notations mini album kit into a 12×12 format.

While no new Blingage was debuted at this show, it continues to be one of Teresa’s hottest items.

We’ll wind this tour down with a peek into the Cosmo Cricket booth. The veteran company brought two new lines to CHA Summer 2011, including their new Christmas release.

“Clementine” features a spring-y color palette not often seen at Summer CHA shows, but Cosmo seems to be on the same page as Pink Paislee (with their Nantucket debut) and Echo Park (with Victoria Garden) in introducing this type of line at a show normally dominated by Halloween and Christmas.

Cosmo Cricket has changed up the way they package their popular Doilies and Butterflies embellishments, electing to deliver them as a sheet of stickers instead of the package of die cuts shown at the Winter CHA show.

Cosmo Cricket went completely vintage with their “Dear Mr. Claus” holiday line, sticking to an almost exclusively red and green color mix accented with whites and blacks.

The third line in the Cosmo Cricket display was the mid-season “Odds and Ends” release that is already on store shelves. This line is also heavy on vintage icons and has been a popular line since its release.

Where will Scrapbook Update go next with our CHA Summer 2011 coverage? Even we’re not sure at this point, so stay tuned to find out!

For those new to Scrapbook Update, our CHA Top Ten Hot Picks list are our picks for the products and companies that we saw at CHA that are sure-fire winners, heavily buzzed-about, or groundbreaking in some way.

Making the selections this time around took a long time because it was surprisingly difficult, much more difficult than it usually is after a CHA show. As we discussed on the Roundtable show at CHA, the show felt somewhat muted. There wasn’t a lot of buzz about very many things. The choices weren’t as obvious as after a lot of CHA shows when the air is just electric with excitement about things.

Also, some of the clear standouts were companies that have been heavily featured on recent Top Ten Hot Picks lists from CHA shows. We didn’t want to sound like a broken record, but we also didn’t want to penalize companies who have been consistently on top of the industry lately.

Ultimately, we came up with a great list of products, and it is full of a lot of familiar names. I think that says something about where the industry is right now: We have some companies that are simply dominating certain categories of products from both a market and quality standpoint.

So let’s take a look (in no particular order) at who and what made the Scrapbook Update CHA Winter 2011 Top Ten Hot Picks list!

Tim Holtz

Ok, let’s just get the obvious one out of the way…Nowhere on the show floor are the crowds bigger (except for the big Provo Craft giveaways) than for anything that Tim Holtz does. He is the arguably the most marketable name in scrapbooking right now, with his name on products by Advantus, Ranger, Sizzix, Stampers Anonymous, Core’dinations, and Tonic Studios.

Tim’s workshops have sold out almost immediately at all of the recent CHA shows and this time was no exception. On the show floor, his demos were always surrounded by huge crowds.

Holtz’s products sales are spurred by his marketability and gift for teaching, but also by his brilliant market placement: he exists in an area between mixed media and scrapbooking, enabling him to reach an audience in both markets. His booth displays always contain a mix of everything from scrapbook layouts (including some at CHA Winter 2011 by Scrapbook Update’s own Contributing Editor May Flaum) to shadow boxes and jewelry and other three dimensional decor items.

Perhaps the flagship introduction of the new Tim Holtz products at CHA Winter 2011 was the Distress Stain, a whole new category of Distress colorant from Ranger. Available in 12 Distress palette colors, the Distress Stain comes in 1 oz bottles with a dabber top, similar to walnut ink many scrappers and stampers may have used. Distress Stain is a water-based dye that soaks into porous surfaces like paper. It’s not blendable like the Distress Ink pads are. In CHA demos, Holtz showed its usability for covering large areas (like a tag background) with color and for creating soft ink effects, like a watercolor look, with stamping.

Two of the other new Tim Holtz items at CHA Winter 2011 that look destined to be extremely popular with consumers are his new Kraft Glassine paper (pictured in use with an embossing folder above) and the Core’dinations Distress cardstock pad (photo below shows Tim demonstrating the monochromatic contrast between the outside and the inner core).

His two new patterned paper pads, including one that is kraft colored with resist ink designs on the pages, will also be wildly popular. But in reality, I expect most of his product lines from this show to be top sellers, with a few exceptions.

Core’dinations

Speaking of Core’dinations, it isn’t just their Tim Holtz products that attracted a lot of attention at CHA Winter 2011. This company has been lining up licensing arrangements right and left, taking part in one of the industry’s hottest business trends, and their introductions in Los Angeles were their best to date.

In addition to the Distress and Adirondack pads, they introduced pads for Graphic 45, BasicGrey, and a host of other companies. Perhaps most amazing were the Core D’Amour collections of papers designed by Teresa Collins and Jenni Bowlin. Those papers featured both embossed and printed design elements, with the contrasting color core for distressing. The result is absolutely beautiful. Photos don’t do the depth of the effect justice (a close-up of one of the Jenni Bowlin papers is below).

With all their licensing arrangments, Core’dinations is bringing a lot of design punch to what used to be a boring scrapbooking staple. In the words of Contributing Editor May Flaum, “They’ve made cardstock sexy!”

Cosmo Cricket Glubers

This is one product that I knew instantly when I saw it would be a hot pick! It was one of the few items I heard buzz about in Los Angeles.

Like most of the best ideas, the idea behind Glubers is deceptively simple: it is a giant round dot of adhesive. The brilliance is in the application of that giant dot of adhesive. Cosmo Cricket is marketing Glubers (available in packages of 12 for $4.99 and multiple sizes from 2″ to 3″) as the basis for creating custom fabric flower embellishments, a look that is currently extremely trendy. Booth samples showed fabric, ribbon and other items being used to create large decorative flowers.

Uniformed Scrapbooks of America

There is a huge market for military scrapbooking supplies, but there tends to be little innovation in that market. Heather and Charles Lovern have brought something new with Uniformed Scrapbooks of America, a new exhibitor at CHA Winter 2011 that sells scrapbooks that have covers that appear as if they are made out of a military uniform shirt.

The product was originated when Heather decided to make a scrapbook for her ex-Marine husband, Charles. She sewed a cover for the scrapbook out of one of his uniform shirts…and a new product line was born. The company is licensed by the US Armed Forces. In addition to the album covers, the company also sells customizable embroidered name tapes that adhere to the album cover “shirts” in the appropriate places, and rank insignia to adhere to the shirt collars.

Something fresh like this should be a big hit in communities with a lot of military families who are sick of the same old, same old in military themed scrapbook offerings.

Technique Tuesday

This company revamped their entire offerings for CHA Winter 2011, with dramatic results. Technique Tuesday eliminated virtually all of their alphabet stamp designs from their catalog, and redesigned their packaging to be much smaller. Instead of being packaged on 8.5 x 11 storage sheets, sets are now packaged on 4 x 6 sheets. This will mean stores will need to devote less display space to sell the products. Technique Tuesday has also lowered their price points, important to be more competitive in a market that is flooded with clear stamp designs.

Balancing the shrinking of their alphabet catalog, Technique Tuesday unveiled a large expansion at CHA Winter 2011 of their most popular offerings: their Ali Edwards signature collection. The five new mini sets of sentiments in Edwards’ distinctive handwriting, with an MSRP of $2.99 each (one is pictured above), will certainly be popular. Love, travel and other theme sets round out the stamp set offerings. The company also introduced new paper designs by Edwards in its Perspectives collection.

The company also expanded their popular class kit offerings, including offering a new kit that capitalizes on the trend towards large dimensional flowers in scrapbooking. The “In Bloom” by Technique Tuesday class kit creates 9 flowers and can be taught over one or two class sessions.

Bella Blvd: Sophisticates by Stephanie

Since its inception, Bella Blvd has consistently provided scrapbookers a bright, cheery look without going 100% over into the cute style dominated by companies like Doodlebug and BoBunny. Existing in a middle ground has allowed the company to draw from a wide range of scrapbook customers.

Bella Blvd is now including their Blooms a Bella flower embellishments as part of the Sophisticates collection, and introduced a new, smaller, size with buttons in the center to the collection.

Jenni Bowlin

Jenni Bowlin showcased an all-star line up of releases at CHA Winter 2011. At the last show she partnered with Ranger and released high quality inks and paint dabbers, and now she’s returned with even more amazing designs and all new products that all vintage loving paper crafters will need. While she has a new paper line, the real star of the show is all of the trinkets and treasures she released that mix so well with any of her current or past products – and that will also appeal to the growing group of papercrafters who are dabbling in mixed media projects. The hidden genius in this release is how simple it is. Packages of little rosette ribbons, colored plastic bows with rhinestones, additions to her Core’dinations cardstock collection, and trend-forward silhouette rub-ons are only a few of the things coming from Jenni this year.

Bowlin is expanding her usual array of goods that go so well with card making, scrapbooking, and altered arts by also adding vintage inspired tins (shown above – projects above and below by Ranjini Malhotra for Jenni Bowlin Studios), as well as vintage inspired wooden thread spools (shown below). These items have any number of uses for home décor and mixed media work. They are fresh additions to the market as well as simple enough to be user friendly.

For those who aren’t into altered items, Jenni has released more of her popular bingo cards. She is also introducing three Hodge Podge mini books that work as a mini book, or can be taken apart and used in other paper craft projects. The materials featured vary from board book to transparency, and they include brass rings to bind them together.

Bowlin now also offers some stamps, as well as more chipboard shapes, flag banner stickers, and even some rhinestone charms. It is obvious that Jenni Bowlin Studio has put time and effort into a release that should be a winner with consumers. These products build on her existing line of products, complementing and adding new dimension to them while at the same time they’re fresh, new, and must-have items.

EK Success Smash Books

These were one of the most buzzed-about items at the show (if not the most buzzed about, period). These fun journals are designed more in the style of “old-fashioned” scrapbooking – to capture the random scraps of our lives – but are very modern in design.

In addition to the four spiral-bound journal designs (which come with a double-ended ink/glue pen), the Smash line includes accessories like date/phrase stamps, page markers, decorative tape and paperclips. The Smash book pages are heavily designed – this product is obviously intended for a young (or at least hip) audience. This isn’t your grandma’s scrapbook!

We R Memory Keepers Lucky 8 Punches

At CHA Summer 2010, We R Memory Keepers caused a buzz with the Sew Easy tool. This time around it was the Lucky 8 border punches that had everyone talking. This company is quickly becoming the company for tool innovation in the scrapbook industry.

The Lucky 8 punches, available in 6 designs, turn any sheet of 12 x 12 paper into die cut paper. Since the punches can cut an outer edge design, an inner edge design, or both designs at once, they can create three different effects from the same punch. Additional effects can be created by punching fewer than the 8 punches needed to do the entire outer edge of a sheet of paper, to create a partial die cut effect (for instance, just doing opposite corners with the inside cut design).

The Lucky 8 punches have an MSRP of $29.99 each, but compared to buying die cut paper at $3/sheet, the savings of using the punch can add up quickly.

Webster’s Pages

They’ve been reliably producing beautiful vintage collections for several shows now, but this time Webster’s Pages hit every note just right with their five new collections. In particular, their new Trendsetter collection is very eye-catching, calling on a more modern period for its look than most of Webster’s collections while still echoing their romantic look.

In particular, some of the collection’s smaller patterns and its embellishments seem to be very usable – even for scrapbookers who aren’t necessarily into Webster’s signature flowery look. Trendsetter may bring a new audience to Webster’s Pages with its more modern, yet still classic, look.

With designs containing butterflies, dress forms, birdcages, and silhouette portraits, Trendsetter’s name is very accurate. It hits on many of the most prevalent trends on the CHA Winter 2011 show floor, while presenting them with Webster’s Pages own signature style.

Christmas in July is a reality in the on-line scrapbooking community, as it’s the month of the Summer CHA show where companies reveal all kinds of good things to come for the second half of the year. While I won’t be attending this show, I also have no intentions of falling behind or missing out. I have been checking Scrapbook Update’s peek page in addition to the blogs and Facebook pages I already follow in the industry.

Today I’d like to share a few of my top picks based on the product images I’ve seen so far on-line. With the show still a week away and many things not yet revealed this is the tip of the iceberg I’m sure – but it’s sure a fun thing to uncover, so I wanted to share.

In no order at all, here are products I’ve seen that I can’t wait to get my hands on:

Pink Paislee has done it again. I am most anxious to see their collaboration with House of 3, but their other lines are awesome too. This “old school” line makes me so very happy – especially the plaids and that die cut “members only” paper.

Despite the cost and (of course) availability issues, I still love Prima products. These pink flowers make me so very happy. I don’t just want them – I need them!

I’m THRILLED to see Cosmo Cricket bringing some new items back into the wild west with the line “Wanted”.

I loved the last batch of Lily Bee chipboard elements – and I really like the new offerings too. Can’t wait!

This paper from Jillibean Soup has me super excited! I just love the filmstrip look and see so much potential for the vibrant fall colors.

American Crafts does cute so very well, and it looks like their Love line is going to be no exception.

Continuing as a top pick – Elementary from Studio Calico is a line I want in full. Specifically, I want about 10 sheets of this paper. It’s die cut and just so cute.

I literally squealed when I saw that Tim Holtz is making more tissue tape (a favorite of mine!) and in holiday themes too. Thanks Tim!

Jenni Bowlin is once again knocking my socks off – from stickers to vellum butterflies to new chipboard buttons.

Glitz Design, a company that has worked it’s way up to favorite status for me will firmly stay that way. I love the new stuff – especially this Scarlett line.

My Minds Eye goes hot and cold for me – but this new offering is smoking hot. I adore Lost & Found, and I can’t wait to play!

Looking for a super cute line for those little girls in your life? This is it. I can’t help but smile at this playful collection from My Little Shoebox.

I have a feeling that Webster’s Pages is going to offer up some beautiful things based on what I’ve seen so far on their facebook page. I hope this tinsel trim is the tip of the iceberg!

I will continue my hunt for the latest & greatest as I prepare new articles, reviews, and features to share here. What great things have you located? Is there something you’re hoping for or looking forward to? Please feel free to share – and for links to all of these and many more sneak peeks click this link.

Ever since Tim Burton came out with his version of Alice & Wonderland, I’ve seen an increase in product related to or inspired by the classic tale – and not just in the Disney store. Just this week I saw (via facebook) that Priscilla Dawn, an etsy shop, will have an Alice-inspired dress for custom order next month. Then I saw American Crafts’ reveal of the new Dear Lizzy line “Enchanted” (pictured below) and my brain started spinning.

For more images and information on this line visit the source of these images – the American Crafts blog.

These three items I’ve shown are just a few of my favorites – I find the whole line to be very cool and I predict another run-away success for Elizabeth Kartchner and American Crafts. It’s a fun twist on the butterfly and flower products that are so common in the industry, and I really love the funky color palette.

I’ve also noticed the details of Cosmo Cricket’s Pixie-Licious line that they revealed recently on their blog. I see a lot of flowers with faces, as well as mushrooms, and caterpillars too. Will there be more caterpillars alongside butterflies now? More mushrooms with flowers? This Pixie-licious line is an interesting offering for sure.

It makes me wonder – will big flowers, tea cups, white rabbit, queen of heart and mad hatter tea party inspired product be the next big thing? Will we see a number of companies jump “down the rabbit hole”? With many CHA reveals still to come, I have no way to know – but I am surprised to find how much I hope there is a big push in this direction.

I like the realm of possibility it holds, and I am hoping for some funky new goodies to add to my must-buy list beyond the lines above.